City/Town: North Kingstown
Length: 80 feet
Bridge Number: 11
Year Built Constructed: 1925
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing resource of the Wickford Historic District.
Description: The bridge carries Boston Neck Road (Route 1A) over Wickford Cove, connecting the villages of Wickford and Hamilton. It is Rhode Island's only example of a concrete through-arch bridge, a technically demanding design that makes the bridge historically significant as an example of advanced engineering during the period of its construction.
The bridge was designed and ultimately named in honor of its designer, Rhode Island Bridge Engineer Clarence Loring Hussey (1884-1925). As the first state government-appointed bridge engineer, Hussey made significant contributions to the design, construction, and management of Rhode Island's highway bridges.
City/Town: Providence
Length: 44 feet
Bridge Number: 975
Year Built: 1875
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Description: The Atwells Avenue Bridge is the oldest wrought iron bridge in Rhode Island. It is a rare surviving example of a proprietary first-generation iron truss bridge, reflecting the materials and idiosyncratic designs typical of the first generation of metal truss bridge engineering.
The already deteriorated bridge was damaged in a severe flood of March 2010, and we are proceeding with design plans for the replacement of the superstructure. The plan includes the removal, cleaning, painting (based on historic paint analysis) and re-installation of the historic wrought iron lattice pony trusses as non-load bearing members of the rehabilitated bridge.
City/Town: Burrillville
Length: 50 feet
Bridge Number: 306
Year Built: 1902
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing resource of the Harrisville Mill Historic District.
Description: The Harrisville Mill Bridge carries East Avenue over the Clear River in the Burrillville village of Harrisville. The short, single-arch stone bridge is associated with the growth of Harrisville's woolen industry during the early twentieth century. It was designed by Dr. Henry J. Bruce, a Pascoag physician who also had a civil engineering practice and did much of the town's highway engineering during the period.
City/Town: Hopkinton and Westerly
Length: 80 feet
Bridge Number: 199
Year Built: 1924
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Description: The Meeting House Bridge carries Nooseneck Hill Road (Route 3) over the Pawcatuck River between Hopkinton and Westerly. It is significant example of the innovative state highway bridge designs produced by the Bridge Division of the Rhode Island State Board of Public Roads during the early twentieth century.
The bridge has a ribbed, slanted spandrel design. Its two separated reinforced concrete arches are connected by concrete ribs that carry a concrete slab trough in which the roadway fill and pavement is located. The design, which was principally used for bridges between 60 and 100 feet in length, was more economical than traditional filled spandrel bridges because it used fewer materials and saved on construction labor costs.
City/Town: Johnston
Length: 125 feet
Bridge Number: 1099
Year Built: 1886
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Description: The Morgan Avenue Bridge was constructed by the Town of Johnston to replace an early nineteenth century wood bridge that carried Morgan Avenue over the Pocasset River and provided access to Morgan Mills. Although town officials considered erecting a cheaper iron bridge, the ability to use a local contractor and Morgan Avenue's status at the time as a through route between Providence and points west may have provided the justification for a stone arch bridge. The bridge was rehabilitated in 2013-2014 to repair damage caused by the devastating flood of 2010.
City/Town: Bristol/Portsmouth
Length: 6,130 feet
Bridge Number: 300
Year Built: 1929
Historic Designation: The bridge is one of Rhode Island's most important historic engineering landmarks and was listed in the National Register in 1976.
Description: The Mount Hope Bridge carries State Route 114 over Naraganset Bay between Bristol and Portsmouth. It was designed in 1927 by the national prominent bridge construction firm of Robinson and Steinman and was completed two years later, greatly reducing automobile travel time between Providence and Newport.
With a main suspension span of 1200 feet, the Mount Hope Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in New England for 40 years before the Claiborne Pell Bridge between Jamestown and Newport was constructed in 1969. It was originally built for the Mount Hope Bridge Company as a privately owned toll bridge before it was purchased by the State of Rhode Island in 1955.
City/Town: North Smithfield
Length: 40 feet
Bridge Number: 273
Year Built: 1856
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing resource of the Slatersville Historic District.
Description: The Slatersville Stone Arch Bridge carries Route 5, also known as the Providence Turnpike, over the Branch River in the North Smithfield village of Slatersville. The bridge is a relatively rare and well-preserved example of mid-nineteenth-century stone arch bridge construction in Rhode Island.
Founded in 1805 by the early textile firm of Almy, Brown, & Slater, Slatersville was one of the first factory villages in the United States where owners provided housing and municipal buildings to attract workers to the mill. John and William S. Slater, who owned the company in the mid-nineteenth century, recognized that good roads were essential for reliable product deliveries to and from their mills and worked through the town government to secure funding for a permanent crossing at Branch Creek. At a town meeting in December 1855, citizens appropriated $2,000 for its construction from the town treasury.
City/Town: Smithfield
Length: 500 feet
Bridge Number: 278
Year Built: 1933
Historic Designation: The bridge is determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Description: The Stillwater Viaduct is a multiple span, reinforced concrete bridge that carries Washington Highway over the Woonasquatucket River in Smithfield. The bridge was an important example of Rhode Island's early attempts to accommodate the automobile age through highway infrastructure construction and is one of only three large open spandrel reinforced concrete arch bridges in the state. The Washington Highway was designed as a circumferential automobile route around the Providence metropolitan area.
